What is your favorite Progressive Rock song ?

[Oldrottenhead]

i'll get my coat, im away to the drunk tank lol.

[Bluesberry]

If it's what made you what are Sandy, then there's nothing wrong with that.  Thats a dandy vid, I haven't heard that one in a while.........thats a vocal........and you are right, the term Prog Rock is not really the right term.........the bands that made the type of music that we are calling prog rock on this thread didn't think of themselves as prog rock, the term wasn't even invented yet.  They were just rocking out in their way, to what made them feel the music.......labels are crap.

The development of Progressive Rock Music, a difficult task

Late 60s and beginning of the 70s
I would say it all began with psychedelic music, i.e. essentially Jimi Hendrix and earlier PINK FLOYD (all their stuff with Syd Barrett). Some people say that The BEATLES also had a contribution to the prog movement). Then came bands such as KING CRIMSON and YES at the end of the sixties. KING CRIMSON, along with VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR (VDGG) helped define a sub-genre of the progressive music called hard prog ('hard' referring to the tormented atmosphere of their records, however "In The Court In The Crimson King" is symphonic prog). YES were playing symphonic rock, so called because of the use of a symphonic orchestra. GENESIS were already recording at the end of the sixties but their links to the progressive rock were not yet defined. With the album "Trespass", things became clear about GENESIS. YES and GENESIS remain icons in symphonic rock music. Other bands followed their steps later : GENTLE GIANT, CAMEL among others. At the same time as symphonic rock was developing in Great Britain, many Italian bands were performing a similar type of music : BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORCO (BDMS for short), PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI (PFM), Le ORME, QUELLA VECCHIA LOCANDA (QVL) among others. These two countries were the most prolific as far as progressive rock is concerned.

Let's go back to England to focus on another sub-genre that comes from the Canterbury country. CARAVAN defined that sub-genre with their second album and bands like HATFIELD AND THE NORTH and later NATIONAL HEALTH followed (plus a band that didn't come from England but from USA, HAPPY THE MAN). The first GONG album ("Camembert Electrique", featuring Pip Pyle on drums who later joined HATFIELD and NATIONAL HEALTH) belongs also to this sub-genre. Daevid Allen (who later founded GONG) formed with Robert Wyatt SOFT MACHINE, a band that could be regarded as belonging to the Canterbury scene for their first three releases, but that turned to jazz-fusion (with "Third"), another sub-genre that included also later Bruford and BRAND X, and in the USA Frank ZAPPA.

So, all the beginning of the seventies, 3 sub-genres are already established : symphonic (YES, GENESIS), Canterbury (CARAVAN, earlier GONG), hard prog (KING CRIMSON, VDGG).

The 70s
After Syd Barrett left PINK FLOYD, their music became softer with ethereal passages : they defined a new sub-genre, space rock. GONG were also following the same way with "Angel Egg" (but with humour), their best record to date. After The YARDBIRDS split, Keith Relf formed with his wife Jane the band RENAISSANCE, a group that blended folk music with progressive rock. Along with JETHRO TULL, RENAISSANCE were qualified as a folk prog band. The popularity of RENAISSANCE grew after Annie Haslam replaced Jane Relf on vocals and they releases the great "Scheherazade And Other Stories" in 1975. JETHRO TULL released "Aqualung" in 1971, an album that is considered as a classic today, but I would recommend the flow-up "Thick As A Brick" as an introduction to their contribution to the folk prog scene.

Another sub-genre of the progressive rock was also developing in the seventies : art rock, led by bands such as SUPERTRAMP, ROXY MUSIC, 10 CC. These groups were playing a simpler music than in the other prog sub-genre. In Germany, a group called TANGERINE DREAM was playing a music based exclusively on electronic instruments, hence their music was called "Electronic" (or New Age"), although it may include many not electronic instruments (as is the case for Mike OLDFIELD), VANGELIS and SYNERGY belong also to this sub-genre. Many of the German bands that appeared at the beginning of the seventies were classified as "Krautrock", an additional sub-genre of the progressive rock, including GROBSCHNITT, AMON DÜÜL, ASH RA TEMPEL. A minimalistic form of the "electronic" music appeared also in the seventies : ambient. KRAFTWERK, Brian ENO, CLUSTER belong to this category. Moreover, in England a sub-genre based on improvisation and with a jazz background appeared in 1973 with the release of HENRY COW's "Leg End" (RIO, Rock In Opposition).

I forgot to mention that EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER (ELP), band that gathered members of KING CRIMSON, ATOMIC ROOSTER and The NICE released albums ("Tarkus" being regarded as their best) belonging to a sub-genre called classical prog, as they often feature a song that is an adaptation of a piece of classical music ("Pictures At An Exibition" for example). The NICE and Rick WAKEMAN belong also to this sub-genre, In North America, some groups tried to mix hard rock with progressive elements, such bands are RUSH, STYX among others (KANSAS could also be added to this category but it is also close to the English symphonic prog scene). They were called pomp prog as the intros and outros of some of their songs are "pompous".

I mentioned previously the development of a jazz-fusion scene with BRAND X (featuring Phil Collins), Bruford, and ZAPPA, the music of this latter could be considered as a unique sub-genre (mix of jazz, doo-wap, rock...). Another band was also strongly rooted in jazz but included also influences ranging from Stockhausen to Duke Ellington, via opera : MAGMA, who created the Zeuhl sub-genre, with a language intelligible only by them ("Kobaïa").

So, at the end of the seventies you have 10 new sub-genres in the progressive rock : art rock, folk prog, classical prog, RIO, jazz-fusion, Zeuhl, ambient, electronic, krautrock, pomp prog

The 80s
The progressive rock was supplanted by the "punk movement" at the end of the seventies, a "music" which aim was to prove that everyone could play music. "Punk" gave rise to the cold wave in the eighties and prog rock was reduced to what was called neo progressive (a simpler form of the symphonic prog but with much present drums), and an embryo of what became at the beginning of the nineties the metal prog . SAGA were probably the first to play this neo prog, but MARILLION, IQ and PENDRAGON are the best representatives of this sub-genre. Landmarq albums include "Misplaced Childhood" by MARILLION, "Masquerade Overture ('96)" by PENDRAGON and "Ever" by IQ.

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive-rock.asp#development

[chip]

My Fave, anything from The Yes album 1971. I don't care for any of it now but 'The Yes album album' still hits the spot. I did like most if not all Prog rock but it started making no sense after a while, so I got rid of my vast collection of it.... I still love Hawkwind but don't really know if they are prog in the true sense.

[Bluesberry]

I still love Hawkwind but don't really know if they are prog in the true sense.

I would def call Hawkwind prog...........I don't think there is a true sense of Prog, its just a state of mind......

God this is something.......look at Lemmy.......this is hot shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoZ_Lg21b14

[Oldrottenhead]

like chip i pretty much went off prog too. for me it was around topographic oceans it got a bit pretentious as if it wasn't before that, then punk hit like a breath of fresh air. that said i always loved van der graaf generator,and always will, imho their old stuff still sound fresh today, they had an anarchic vibe and always did their own thing, yeah they where pretentious at times but hey who isnt.

[henwrench]

For ORH and Sandy...

        EDIT BY ORH FIXED                
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1U194Glbh0

[Oldrottenhead]

i better fix it eh?

[Gnasty]

ORION! One of the best instrumentals of all time!!!!!

[Oldrottenhead]

ouch that was a big mistake on my part.

[Oldrottenhead]

do you guys actually like that?